Heaven in Hell

DAY 4 (CONTD.)

DAY 4 (CONTD.):

2300 HOURS

OFFICER ROSHESH VAZA:

Sid hasn't showed up for dinner since he ran to the interrogation room with Agent Prescott. I hope he isn't skipping dinner or worse, forced to skip dinner. Both things do not sit well with me.

Deciding to check it out myself, I head out to his room first. He is not there meaning he is forced to skip dinner. Next stop is the interrogation room. There is blood on the floor but no sign of Sid or Agent Prescott. Thinking fast, I head to the infirmary first. He isn't there either. Panicking, I decide to check out all the areas.

When I finally check the grinder, I see Sid sprawled on his back and no sign of Agent Prescott. Walking up to him, I say, "Sid, you alive?"

His reply has me chuckling, "I don't think it hurts so much if you are dead."

Hoisting him up, I help him walk to the Officer's Mess for some dinner before dropping him off to his room. I know from experience that Agent Prescott would have him well hydrated and otherwise uninjured so it saves us a visit to the infirmary.

After dinner, when we started walking towards his room, Sid said, "No, I have to go find who is staying in after-hours punishment today. I know Kyra and Ashwin are there. You know who else is there?"

"Yes, Arjun dozed off in class so he is there."

"Shit, it is the trio who created the mess. Agent Prescott is going to love this." With that, he walked off.

Knowing better than to follow, I retired to bed for the day.

---

ARJUN NANAVATI:

Just as I was to go to sleep, Officer Siddharth entered my room and said, "Report at 0300 hours outside my room with Cadet Kyra and Cadet Ashwin. Clear?"

Even before I could shout a yes sir, he had ran off to wherever he came from.

--

DAY 5:

ARJUN NANAVATI:

0300 HOURS

We walked together to the grinder to find Officer Siddharth's uniform covered in sweat and dirt.

Getting in Office Siddharth's face while pointing at us, Agent Prescott spoke, "Wow, what a day! The trio who got you in trouble now owns your ass. You three, you mess up today, Officer Siddharth here will be paying dearly for it. He has quite a lot of muscles that I feel won't be aching enough so feel free to mess up. You will have rid yourself of poor instructor for a year."

With a quick step back, he ordered, "Ashwin, drop" We were clueless as to what he wanted us to do or what he said but Ashwin did as he was ordered, no questions asked.

He continued, "Now spread your legs a bit more. Good. Now, Officer Siddharth you are also to drop but on Ashwin in the opposite direction. That is your legs on his shoulders and your hands on his ankles. Kyra, you are to drop on Officer Siddharth in the same position as Ashwin and Arjun, you are on Kyra in Officer Siddharth's position."

So we all did as asked. It looked like a push-up pile.

Agent Prescott bent before Ashwin and put a watch in line of his sight.

He then explained, "Good. Now hold the position till 0500 hours. Though the bell is going to ring, you have this watch to indicate the time. Now do I need to appoint somebody to watch or are you going to be honest?"

Officer Siddharth curtly replied, "Honest, sir"

Smiling sarcastically, Agent Prescott replied, "Thank you, Officer for lending me your room. I'm going to sleep in there. If I hear any noise, I'll know you guys couldn't hold the position."

And with that he strode off, I suppose to catch his beauty sleep, while we were in a pile-up.

--

0430 HOURS

Officer Siddharth, "Fuck. Ashwin, sing a song?"

Ashwin replied, "Sorry sir, I can't sing. Tooo much weight.."

Officer Siddharth scoffed, "YOU THINK IT'S OK TO TELL YOUR INSTRUCTOR THAT?"

With a trembling voice, Ashwin spoke, "No sir. But I don't want to fail this task so please, sir, let me go this time. I'll do anything you want later."

Officer Siddharth spoke in his scarily calm voice, "Don't worry, you will have a lot of time to pay for it later." But he didn't say anything for now and for that I sighed in relief.

--

0435 HOURS

OFFICER SIDDHARTH:

Every fucking bone hurts but I'm too numb to feel anything. All I feel is sleepy from this silence. I needed a distraction but the cadets are right, none of them would have enough strength.

So I just lost myself in the beauty of my training days. I and Roshesh were the mischievous duo. We used to play a lot of pranks and land ourselves into hellish punishments just for the sake of a laugh or showing off. But we still managed to earn the instructors respect because of our excellent performance.

We managed to break every record of the academy. Roshesh topped half of the assessments while in the others, I topped. But despite being so competitive, we truly enjoyed challenging each other and pulling creative pranks. A lot of pranks and their reactions crossed my mind and unconsciously, a smile grazed my lips. Despite my denial, I thoroughly enjoyed those days.

--

KYRA IRANI:

Officer Siddharth was completely quiet after his outburst. I was sure, he had dozed off until he asked Ashwin the time.

Officer Siddharth had already killed us in the first half and Officer Roshesh was not easy either. My hands were shaking uncontrollably from the weight of Arjun and I was trying to calm them.

Arjun snapped, "How much fucking more time? It's getting very hard."

Ashwin sarcastically replied, "20 more minutes. And you know, quit complaining. You have no one on you."

To which Arjun cussed and spoke, "Yes, you are right. I'm at the top of the pile. I may not have weight on me but I do have to balance this shivering pile. So, shut up and consider that everyone has it equal hard."

Before anybody could speak, Officer Siddharth whisper-shouted, "SHUT THE FUCK UP. Ashwin, he is right. It is difficult for everyone, not just you. And Arjun, Ashwin is right too. Complaining is of no use. Quit if you can't handle it. But either ways, SHUT UP BEFORE YOU LAND IN TROUBLE WITH ME OR WORSE, AGENT PRESCOTT"

And that shut everyone up. We all clenched our teeth and concentrated on lasting till 0500 hours. Despite, shaking hands and pounding shoulders, pride won so nobody wanted to give up. The only way this pile would fall was if somebody fainted.

Exactly when the bell rang, Ashwin just fell face first and the whole pile came crashing on him. He couldn't even wait a second to let us each get down.

Due to the noise, Agent Prescott yelled from the room, "KEEP IT DOWN GENTS. Officer Siddharth, I'll see you here at the scheduled breakfast, lunch and dinner breaks today. Your payment for dropping below the speed limit is long overdue. YOU ARE DISMISSED."